‘Distracted with expectation and disappointment and joy.’
And finally they were anchored in the roads off Madras. Charly verbally sketched the highlights: ‘Some lascars scrambled into the ship through the port-holes. Dobashes dressed in fine muslin dresses brought fruit on board; other blacks were nearly naked. We ladies were to go on shore first and therefore embarked in a Masoollah boat; the boat-men sung the whole way through the surf, which was really nothing. The sea came in a little at the sides of the boat. It wet me a little, but I did not mind it at all.’
My dearest brother – About 5 o’clock in the afternoon, boats came directly to take us on shore and I confess I was not much delighted with their appearance, or with the thoughts of the formidable surf; but we were lucky to a great degree. There had not been known a day so calm for a long time and we did not suffer in the least. I left the ship a little before Lord Clive that I might see him come in and go through all the necessary ceremonies. I landed with the girls and went, in a palanquin to the East room on the top of the Admiralty house, to see him go to the council room and from thence to a veranda in the square, to hear the commission read, which was done within a square of sepoys, who fired three simultaneous volleys afterwards.
The concourse of people was immense and the strange variety of dress very amusing. The girls couldn’t be persuaded that the people dressed in long muslin dresses were not women, though some had long grey beards. General Harris, who has had the command of everything until Lord Clive’s arrival, came with Lord Clive to General Sydenham’s veranda where we were sitting.
Afterwards Henrietta and the girls went with General Harris to the Garden House where the Clives were to live. Everything pleased Henrietta. Charly pronounced ‘both house and garden, beautiful. We took a delightful walk before and after supper, and were very tired.’ Everybody’s baggage had arrived except for Henrietta’s, Charly’s and Harry’s which did not appear until the next day around 10 o’clock along with Friskey, the terrier.
General Harris breakfasted with the Clives. The Nawab sent a present of oranges to Henrietta and of figs to Charly and Harry. The girls took a walk after dinner near the seaside, and met a sand snake that was killed, brought home, and preserved in vinegar.
On August 23rd Lord Clive and Charly visited the Nawab, who put a string of flowers round his [Lord Clive’s] neck, and perfume on his pocket handkerchief and told him that Lord Mornington had made him sick, but that he, Lord Clive, was his doctor. The Nawab enquired after Henrietta and said that as soon as his health permitted, he would call upon her. As they were in the verandah a cassowary paid them a visit, which pleased Charly.
My dear Lady Clive – the country and the appearance of the people are so different from anything we have ever seen, that it is amusing. We got up at 5 o’clock in the morning to take a walk. The house is very pleasant, but there is little room. I cannot say we admire the fruits. I am told it is a bad time of the year. It may be so; but certainly there is not anything so good as a peach, or a strawberry. I wrote to you a few days ago by a ship that was to sail from Tranquebar* …
My dear Lady Douglas – I sat in form last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to receive the ladies and gentlemen, which were pretty numerous. I am terribly inclined to believe the fair sexes in this country are not too agreeable. Many women have come out to Madras to marry. If I dared, I would tell what my Ladies and Gentlemen are like. It will be difficult and I hope my evil genius is not now looking over me and going to publish my observations on them. I really think I never saw so many females that had quite forgot what beauty might be. I have no idea of so many peoples assembled without one that would be thought tolerable in London. I sat perched upon a chair at the end of a large room during three hours for three successive nights – when they all came and curtsied – till every bone ached. I have given two assemblies that, if you could have seen, would have made you laugh. I looked, I hope, sufficiently civil. As for society it seems quite out of the question even amongst themselves and really except three or four that I have met with don’t much wish to be admitted to enjoy it. There are just a few with good manners and sensible, but for the greatest part are as much otherwise as any body can invent. As you see, I am none too happy with the level of entertainment in Madras, equating Madras society with that of Ludlow in Shropshire.
In a day or two I shall start to return my visits, which will be a troublesome ceremony from their houses being so dispersed.
There is a town or rather the capital near my gate that leads to the Nawab’s palace where the murmur and noise is beyond all belief. The city is rather irregularly built all composed of huts made of cocoanut leaves and the inhabitants are more irregular than their houses, which I understand, are not of the first fame and that it is a compound of all the worst of both sexes. The people have fêtes and all sorts of ceremonies. A marriage keeps us awake for a week. All their amusements are during the night.
I live on a dead flat, which is not proper for one’s imagination. I have no thick covert and woods but a cocoanut tope with straggling trees and not even a ditch in my garden. I am building a room in the garden and a laboratory for all sorts of odd rocks and works and shall endeavour to fancy myself in England. I mean to learn Persian in the Moorish language. I must do something to make me understand and be understood. Besides I hope that, as I must do something, I shall grow prosperous and hold forth in all the eloquence of the East and in that style I may pour forth my soul at your feet when I return. I cannot help already thinking what I shall do when I go back again.
Henrietta did not condone being idle, but believed in staying occupied. By August 25th the settling-in had taken place. Charly observed in her journal that the harps were ‘all quite safe, but Mamma’s, which was a little the worse’. Henrietta and the girls began to investigate their surroundings and drove out to see the Mount Road, one of their perimeters. Inside Fort St George they visited St Mary’s Church, a personal landmark for them as Lord Robert Clive and Margaret Maskelyn had married there in 1753. They began to acclimatise to the temperature which was, they all agreed, ‘extremely hot’. Henrietta occupied her days in receiving visits from the ladies of the settlement and the girls took rides in the morning with Captain Brown. Mr Petrie was obliged to leave his house on account of snakes: a cobra was found in his house and another pursuing the gardener about the garden. Anna Tonelli painted watercolour sketches of local scenes; one was of their Madras neighbourhood.
Entertainment was scarce and included the seasonal arrival of ships. On September 3rd, Henrietta used her fortieth birthday to return visits of the ladies who called on her. The visits were paid in the evening on account of the heat. Ten or more boys ran before the carriage, each carrying a lantern. Jugglers and snake charmers arrived to entertain them. The Nawab called, accompanied by his son and his nephew in a beautiful palanquin ornamented with gold and with glass doors, preceded by a conveyance in the shape of a peacock. His attendants were numerous and there were elephants, horses and camels in his procession. His dress was made of a shawl; he wore an enamelled dagger, a present from the King of England. His son and nephew wore muslin dresses, trimmed with gold. On September 8th the family breakfasted with Admiral Rainier, Captain Brown and Captain Grant. Charly rode for her first time upon an elephant.
My dearest brother – There is a packet going overland, but it is reckoned an uncertain conveyance at present; therefore I shall not tell you all my news as in all probability this letter may never reach you. We are all well. Lord Clive bears his business, though it is continual, without suffering much from it. At first I was afraid for him but it is now gone off and I am persuaded he will be able to go through with it with as much care as can be expected. The girls are quite well neither losing health nor spirits. I have a long letter preparing for you which I should be sorry it was lost therefore shall keep it till an English fleet sails and in all probability the Dover Castle may give you the first notice of our arrival here, though I wrote by a Danish ship and am now writing again. We are in the greatest anxiety about English news and everyday in hopes of the signal of an East Indiaman.
My dearest brother – I have already written a very long letter to you which will go by the common post but this is so much between us that I thought it better it should be separate and I shall contrive it shall go with the dispatches and be thrown overboard in case anything happens. I particularly wish that you should know all that has happened since we came here as to politics and state affairs.
You know that Mr Petrie came in the same fleet with us and that Lord Clive knew little of him before we set out. He professed a wish only to come if Lord C had nobody he preferred and that it was quite agreeable to him. Lady Campbell gave me the message from him to Lord Clive. She said, I am pretty sure, and have heard the same since, that whenever he has a seat in council, which is to be on a vacancy, that he was determined never to oppose Lord Clive in Council. Let him do as he would and that if he differed in opinion with him he would be silent and wished to be considered as his decided friend. I recollect Strachey wrote to Walcot† saying he was sorry to say that Petrie was moving heaven and earth to come. He afterwards said little about him. Petrie came to us occasionally on the voyage. The first thing that struck me was about our going into Rio de Janeiro on which he gave a decided opinion without waiting to hear Lord Clive’s against our going in. On Lord Clive’s going out of the cabin he asked me what we thought of it and to my great surprise on his return gave directly the opposite opinion. I thought no more of it at the time. He was a good deal with us at the Cape and was pleasant, but I thought sometimes too civil.
When we came here, Petrie met us, as all the principal people did in the ship (as he had come in a week before us). For the next two days he never left Lord Clive a moment from morning to night. It surprised me that none of those that came on the ship came here again, though he had visited all day long. Lord Clive was worried with the business and a little heated. Neither of us could sleep well as there was to be a council on the Thursday morning. Mr Petrie said to me at breakfast that Lord Clive must take care and not make himself ill, that he must put off the council.
I confess I did not see that Lord Clive was unwell enough for that. Soon afterwards Petrie sent up Mr Thomas to tell me that he desired I would by all possible means prevail on him not to have a council. This appeared extraordinary to me. I went down to Captain Grant and Brown and told them the message I had had. Grant said he must have a council. It never was otherwise. There never was ever an instance of a Governor not having one the second day after his arrival. No orders can be given but in Council. He said he understood Mr Petrie came for it and with considerable warmth told me that it was his object to appear to govern Lord Clive or be entirely in his confidence for his own views and that it was so much thought to be so from his having been here constantly that General Sydenham, General Harris, Mr Webbe‡ who are most respectable people and, in short, the chiefs of each department were determined not to act with Petrie and that Lord Clive appeared so much in his hands they could not come to him.
I desired Grant to tell Lord Clive directly. He said he had examples that indicated Lord Clive had talked a great deal to Petrie in the ship, yet it might be though impertinent and that he meant to govern him, but that I might say what I pleased to Lord Clive and make what ever I chose of his name. It was an awkward thing for me to interfere in politics or business and I was afraid Lord Clive would not take it right of me.
Brown who had left us in the beginning of this conversation came to me soon and told me that he had heard the same thing. I told him I thought it his duty to tell Lord Clive directly which he did and referred Lord Clive to me for farther explanation which I gave him. He was much surprised and said he thought Petrie stood very high here. It made so much noise that Ashton, who was ill, came out of bed to tell me of it and that Lord Clive was undone if he did not shake off Petrie who is a very distrusted man and had bills protested and returned from this country last winter and added to that it is known by papers, beyond all doubt, and which I believe came into or through Ashton’s hand, and at Tanjore, that in Lord A: Campbell’s time he and Montgomery Campbell, and I am afraid Lady Campbell herself, received very large sums of money which Lord A Campbell never knew till just before he left this country and that Petrie was a person to sell or betray any person for his own interest. Besides that he is intimately connected with people in very bad repute: Roebuck and Abbott Merchants here. All this distressed me extremely.
Lord Clive immediately spoke to Grant, who most fully and properly told him everything and indeed has conducted himself most honourable to Lord Clive. He was recommended very strongly by Lord Cornwallis and Lord C: Oakly and really I believe most deservedly. Lord Cornwallis told Grant that if Lord Clive fell into Petrie’s hands it would be ruinous. The moment Lord Clive had had this conversation, for Petrie had prevailed about the council being put off till the Friday next, he desired to see all the heads of the departments. I had the pleasure to know that while they were closeted with Lord Clive, Petrie was waiting below. Lord Clive still sees him a good deal but not as he did. He endeavours to make it appear he is a good deal here by coming at times when people are coming to dinner and going away without showing himself which as he is the only person going about in a chaise makes him remarkable and sometimes he stays 2 or 3 hours.
I hope and believe Lord Clive sees Petrie’s self-interested motives and that all will go on well. As stories are so very much exaggerated from hence I thought it right you should know the exact truth. Petrie appears to me too civil with a degree of servility that I confess struck me before I knew any of these stories. Many of the principal people will scarcely speak to him.
Lord Mornington [at Calcutta] torments Lord Clive a good deal. He is precipitate and rash and wishes to do too much at once. The treasury is empty and in debt and there are great fears that Lord Mornington will get into a war with Tipu without men or money. The offensive army here, when Ceylon is deducted, consists of but 2,000 men.
Lord Clive seems now getting the better of his first fatigue, my friends Grant and Brown tell me, with great satisfaction to everybody here. They tell me news, which I tell Lord Clive which he likes and I must say that he has said many civil things to me on my being, as he says a great comfort to him so much so that notwithstanding all I have felt in body and mind on coming here, I am glad I have done it and I really do believe I have been of some use to him relieving his mind by occasionally talking of less interesting or more pleasant things.
Our expenses here will probably be much less than the income. We have no servants but those paid by the Company, except for my palanquin and the carriages. Horses are extravagantly dear. A saddle horse for Lord Clive costs 150 guineas. He has four of them for him and Captain Brown. He had been obliged to subscribe pounds 3,000 to the voluntary subscription and as he has not received any money from England has been obliged to borrow. All except the military are paid in paper at the loss of seven percent. My other letters are full of common news but this is only for your own eye and I do not wish Probert nor anybody to know of it.
All is going on as well as possible. The report of Petrie’s influence has travelled all over the country, but it is wearing out here. Lord Clive asked me yesterday what I had heard about it and I was glad to give him good news. I forgot to tell you that Lord Mornington has quarrelled with his council and has consulted lawyers if he could not dismiss them. They decided he could not. You may guess the confusion that must occasion. His brother Colonel Wellesley is here with the 33rd Regiment. He came ten days ago. Lord Clive sees him often and I believe he knows a good deal of Lord Mornington’s mind on peace or war. Colonel Wellesley told me that Lord Mornington is so miserable without Lady Mornington and their children that the name of Europe is sufficient to make him quite wretched. This does not look as if he would stay long.
The Thetis came in about 4 o’clock, but the letters are not yet delivered out. The Osterley is come, too; therefore we shall have all the news we are to expect for an age. The Thetis has been nearly lost from a leak, which was sudden and so bad that sailors, soldiers and passengers were constantly employed in passing and lading out the water with buckets. The lady passengers were sent to the Osterley as they expected not to be able to save the ship. What a dreadful idea. Though our leak on the Dover Castle was not of such consequence, how right it was to go into the Cape and service ourselves from all risk.
My dearest Brother – I have had a great heap of letters most of them mentioning you and that you were quite well, which gives me the greatest satisfaction. Your letter to Lord Clive about the Regiment is not yet arrived. We are in hopes it is with another Fleet that sailed 14th May and is not yet come in.
My dearest Brother – the letters are all come, I take it for granted now, as they have been dropping in all day yesterday. And this morning came George Strachey, who had seen you two days before he left England. There is something very charming in finding one that had actually seen you well. Everybody agrees in your perfect health which is a great blessing for me and those that know it say that though you have a great deal of business on your hands you do it with wonderful dispatch.
My dear Lady Douglas – I have been so nearly distracted with expectation, disappointment and joy that I am not quite certain I am now really and truly compos mentis. I have seen his Highness the Nawab, who is a hideous little old man much more like an old woman. He disappointed me by not bringing in with him any of his grandees. They waited in the sun while he made his visit. He had neither pearls as large as pigeons’ eggs nor diamonds, but an old shawl, bed gown, and an enameled dagger, that was anything but handsome, a present from our most gracious sovereign. In short people may talk of the magnificence of the East, but it is certainly not to be met with here with this ruler. The Nawab goes about in a shabby coach when he goes for an airing with the worst looking guards in white calico. In short there is nothing like Haroun Alraschid or the Viccer Giafor§ to my great disappointment.
I wish much to see his wives. He says he had seventy-four daughters born in one year and that was last year, which I doubt. He asked Lord Clive how many wives he had and told me he hoped I should have some Madras children. He made some confusion by way of saying how he should like them, which sounded as if he intended they should be his own. It was such a strange visit, as you cannot imagine. Part was said in English and part was to be translated and as it is usual in translations I believe there was great discrepancy from what he said by the faces of most that understood or interpreted who were English. He admired my girls and asked if they were married! He thought them quite old enough at 11 and 13 for marriage in this country.
It’s like being Queen of stark naked black people amongst whom I walk about as unconcerned as if they were dressed like human creatures. They really are so near stark that it is wonderful seeing how well we look in clothes. They do not imitate us.
I have been established since the first three days and comfortably though the house is like a cage. It is impossible to be invisible a moment without going round and shutting fifty Venetian blinds in every direction, there being neither glass in the windows or doors. All is perfectly open which annoyed me terribly at first. At every moment the first night I saw a black face and a turban through the blinds. It was sometime before I could express that I did not want such faithful attendants. I am now left more at my ease and only find six or seven upon every staircase. Women with parasols appear the moment I go outdoors that no entreaty can get rid of them despite all my acts and ingenuities. I have tried everything but getting out of a window to escape. They certainly are the most attentive servants I ever met with and I am growing to like them extremely.
My dearest brother – last night Lord Clive had a letter from Lord Mornington who says he is going to send for Lady Mornington¶ and his children. I trust we shall not outstay him.
Upon the most exact calculation we shall not exceed £3,000, taking in everything of establishment except salaries, governesses, and secretaries. The calculation is about £200 a month without wine which is uncertain. This takes in all but the European servants who I hope to get rid of. Butler is of scarcely any use. Indeed none. He was at first troublesome and expecting to be maitre d’hôtel and pay everything. He has been ill since and I believe wishes to return … The rest go on well and the old coachman braves all weathers.
I am really quite ashamed to send such packets but what can I do? It is such a relief and a comfort to tell you everything and to seem to talk to you that I cannot help it and I wish you to know how we go on.
Richard Strachey is going to Bengal. He came to me the other day full of surprise at the things he had heard amongst people and young men here of Petrie. He says that they say he will do anything for money. He says he knows his father was very sorry when first he was talked of as coming out here but said no more latterly. I believe Strachey senior always thinks that it is right to be civil to those who may have power. Richard Strachey says that people express great horror at Petrie’s ever succeeding to the government. God Bless you, my dearest Brother.
My dearest brother – A packet came last night overland with letters of great importance. Lord Clive says that Bonaparte has succeeded in Egypt. I am very sorry and am afraid he will come here, as well as Tipu. It is very unlucky if there is a War on all accounts. This packet left London the 19th June. Strachey is gone to Bengal to his brothers and it is doubtful when he returns. Lord Clive has written a very handsome and kind letter in his favour to Lord Mornington. I shall be glad when the dispatches are ended and these letters gone. Lord Clive has a great deal to do and to think of and it will be a great relief to his mind.
Tomorrow the dispatches are to be sealed up so there will be an end of writing for sometime to come. We are all well except Harry who has had continually, almost ever since we came here, a disorder in her bowels and a disposition to being nervous and hysterical which is unpleasant to me, but I have not mentioned it in any of my other letters. I cannot help being afraid that the violent perspiration night and day will weaken us all and not agree with her. The cool weather is coming on, but I must say I am afraid it will not do. I have not said so to Lord Clive because it is a great pleasure to him having them and we must try every thing as he would not like to part with either them or myself and yet I cannot help being a little afraid. Thomas says if we will rely upon him he will do all he can and thinks all will be well, but she is too young to be nervous like me. I shall write by every opportunity. If Egypt is really taken, there is an end of the overland dispatches.
I have had a very unpleasant affair happen to my maid who has been in a most abominable and cruel manner seduced by an officer in the ship. The story is so bad against him that Lord Clive has taken it up and, he will, I hope, be made to provide for her as she is unfortunately in a way to produce. Lord Clive has behaved in the kindest manner to her and me upon the subject and her behaviour is so proper that when she is visible again she is to be established in some business here and we have got her a proper place where she will be concealed for some months. This has hurt me much and is a great inconvenience to me besides. She has been with us several years and is sister to one of your Damsels at Powis Castle and really a most excellent person. We endeavour if possible that nobody should know it in England, as it is in all ways a very distressing affair. Adieu my Dearest Brother I am quite ashamed of the quantity of nonsense I have been writing these two months to you but, as I said before, I cannot help it at this distance. God bless you and keep you in good health, as well as my boys.
Just before the ships sailed in the evening, Henrietta added a last-minute note to inform her brother about gifts on board for him and her sons: ‘two buffalo horns which Captain Grant gave us. They are in a box of things sent to the boys.’ This bit of family trivia was followed by momentous news. ‘We heard yesterday of the French fleet being burnt at Alexandria by Lord Nelson and are in great hopes it is true.’
On October 15th, Anna Tonelli painted a watercolour of St Thomas’s Mount in Madras. Charly’s journal kept a running account of daily events:
October 16th Colonel Cotton, Major de Grey, and a few other gentlemen dined here; the two colonels and the major of the 25th regiment made 66 between them. The 25th Regiment was one of the experiment, all of the men being under 25 years of age. Colonel Cotton, Colonel de Blaquiere, Major de Grey being at their head. It was thought their youth, might make them more fit to endure the heat of the Indian climate.
October 19th Mamma gave an assembly.
October 20th We went to see Colonel Wellesley’s regiment, the 33rd.
October 21st In our morning drive we met the Nawab, his sons, nephews and ministers, going to attend a religious ceremony four miles beyond the Mount.
October 23rd A large dinner party.
October 24th Mamma and my sister began to learn Hindustani.
October 25th Mamma went to the Asylum in state, taking Mrs Harris with her.
October 26th In our morning drive we stopped to look at a beautiful leopard. We met also a royal tiger, and some bears that some men were leading for show. We saw the tiger kill a sheep. The royal tiger was a beautiful beast; I cannot say the bears were.
Abruptly the certain menace of war appeared amidst the drives, dinner parties and the quotidian affairs of their lives. Charly’s commentary continued: ‘October 27th: We went to see the guns that had started before daylight to go to Vellore, each drawn in carriages by sixty bullocks. After we met them, Papa joined us and took us on to St Thomas’s Mount, where we breakfasted.’ ‘November 19th: Mamma, Signora Anna, my sister and myself went in palanquins in the evening to Triplicane to see a Malabar feast round the Hindoo Tank.’ ‘November 24th: Col Wellesley dined here.’ ‘November 30th: A young cobra was found in the garden near our sitting-room … Papa gave a grand dinner.’
For the most part December was given over to dinners, assemblies, a ball and the novelty of seeing a Sepoy corps. On December 7th the Clives allowed themselves an outing to the Red Hills for a day and Anna Tonelli painted a watercolour of a large house by the edge of a lake. On December 9th Charly noted a surprise: ‘We returned to the Garden House, and found Friskey with seven puppies.’ On December 27th the family attended an amateur theatrical production, The Absent Man: the Mogul Tale.
My dearest brother – as there is a ship going to the Cape, I shall write by it and take my chance of your receiving this whenever it may happen. I have the pleasure to tell you that we are all well. I think Lord Clive at times much occupied by the continual business and with the additional anxiety from the approaching war with Tipu Sultan. As for myself I never was better in my life and your nieces are so, too.
I must tell you that we have had much concern from the death of poor Ashton|| who was killed in a duel, at last died in five days afterwards in consequence of a ball that went into his stomach, perhaps through the liver and lodged in the hip after popping the backbone and in a degree injuring the spine. He was in great hopes of his life, as the situation of the ball was not ascertained till after his death (till he expired, he not having had on that morning any bad appearance, though he had been in the utmost danger for the first twenty-four hours after it happened). You may imagine how much it has shocked us and it is a sad thing for the service. He fought twice. The first with Major Picton ended well, but the second was with Major Allen, both of his own Regiment. The dispute was about regimental affairs in which I understand poor Ashton was perfectly in the right. I will endeavour to get an account to send you.
Charly’s brief and understated final entry for 1798 spoke volumes about the man who appeared to have come for dinner, but who would stay until September 1799: ‘December 31: Lord Mornington arrived from Bengal, and dined here. Richard Strachey was in attendance upon him.’
* Tranquebar, a Danish settlement along with Pondicherry which had been French, was a reminder of the European presences located along the Coromandel Coast.
† Clive family estate
‡ Josiah Webbe, Secretary of the Madras Council and one of Lord Mornington’s bright young men.
§ Harun ar-Rashid, the caliph of Baghdad and his vizier, Jaffar, who accompanied the caliph (disguised as a merchant) in his nightly wanderings about the streets of Baghdad are recurrent figures in the Arabian Nights. Quite possibly Henrietta read the original French translation of Antoine Galland which appeared in 1704 and 1717 (based on an earlier collection of Indian-Persian fairy-tales entitled Hazar Afsanah, ‘A Thousand Tales’).
¶ Lady Mornington (née Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland), an actress at the Palais Royal, had three sons and two daughters by Mornington before they were married in 1794. She was shunned by high society. In a fine portrait by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun in 1791, Hyacinthe is stunningly beautiful.
|| Col Henry Harvey Ashton, in command of the King’s 12th Foot, was killed in a duel with a Major Allen. His friend Col Arthur Wellesley was sent to take over Ashton’s command at Ameer, Arcot and Vellore. Before he died, Ashton gave his Arab horse, Diomed, to Wellesley.